Volado, Seco, Viso, Ligero. what a mess.

[DGBAMA]

Trying to learn cigar tobacco leaf types and reading people blends puzzled me for a long time, which is which, I struggled with remembering.

A little memory key, that works for me...... Some of the associations are a stretch, but maybe it will help someone trying to remember the leaf types.

Volado: roughly translates to "fliers", ie. Light windblown leaf, light leaf is the lowest part of the plant, first priming, generally mild and thin, with good combustability. Volado associates with " light/lower ".

Seco: easy....... Second priming.... Good burn, lighter flavor than upper leaves.

Liguero: I associate " li" with "late" ie. Upper leaf. Smaller, fuller flavored, less combustible.

Viso, this is the tricky one. I associate "vi" with "vision" As in eye level, in between second priming (seco) and upper priming (liguero). Viso is a middle stalk position with more flavor and slower burn than Seco, but less flavor and better burn than Liguero.

volado: lowest leaf
Seco: second priming
Viso: vision height, above seco, below Liguero.
Liguero: upper leaf (late harvest).

Hope this helps someone with something that used to confuse me.

 

[rainmax]

And here is one picture for visual...

 

[webmost]

Ingredients are indeed baffling. For example Dominican seco means leaves from halfway up a plant grown in the Dominican Republic. Yeah? What plant? They never tell you the seed, dang it. Premium cigars tell you even less than that, if anything. They say: "Dominican filler." Never the seed, never the stalk position, never the proportion.

 

[LewZephyr]

And here is one picture for visual...

View attachment 13298

Great image reference, but its missing the Viso.
I assume its around the 4th priming? or is it the 5th?

 

[ArizonaDave]

Great image reference, but its missing the Viso.
I assume its around the 4th priming? or is it the 5th?

It could be the 4th and the 5th priming, I'm a little unsure exactly.

 

[BarG]

I quit worrying about any of that. When you know the plant you grew and your going to smoke it all any way, heh heh. I know for cigars it can slightly matter and my uppermost leaves are generaly the smallest. As far as sandlugs or volado I worry less and often now don't harvest. but mid leaves [seco] and transition to upper leaves [liguero] I save every one and if mixed so what. On my cigarette varietys I mix them up also on purpose to get the nicotine more leveled out instead of one batch more than less.

 

[deluxestogie]

Call me simple, but English might help:

• bottom leaf or sand lugs (mud lugs)
• lower leaf or lugs
• middle leaf
• upper leaf
• tops or tips

That is how I label my primed leaf, regardless of its intended use. I don't use Turkish names for stalk position on Orientals. I suppose all the premium cigar marketing lingo makes Spanish seem more sophisticated for cigar tobacco. It's part of the mystique. Cigar people expect Spanish. (I'll confess that I find the jrcigar.com website annoying in its use of "light brown," "dark brown," and "very dark brown" to describe cigar colors. Why can't they just use Spanish, like the Good Lord intended?)

Bob

 

[ArizonaDave]

I just trimmed all the half leaf mud lugs off, and the plants perked up and seems as though they're growing faster? Bob, I think I'm going to use your labeling when it comes to that time. My fall grow, they're still growing, and still have a month or so of heat left, so I'm not worried, then it drops down to 70's in the day.

 

[BarG]

It reads just like jitterbugdude's book on leaf labels, in englesh. I read both yall's books or knowledge on the subject. Oh, you aint got a book yet,Yall should conspire to do so. I know a guy who knows a guy, Heh heh. Seriously , your research and knowledge should be saved for posterity Bob. You can give Randy an honorable mention.

 

[MarcL]

Tobacco College: Seeds & Plants more colleges Accoutrements College | Taste College | Service College

CRIOLLO

While there are many Cigar Tobacco Varietals, the in-depth Curriculum on Growing, Nurturing, and Harvesting Cigar Tobaccos will focus on the two most famous seed varietals in the history of cigars: Corojo and Criollo. Their descendants are in most premium cigars made today. While many hybrids have been created over the years [in and outside of Cuba], these two legendary seed strains make excellent specimens for serious study.

• Origins date back to the time Columbus discovered the "New World"
• Traditionally used as filler and binder plant
• Grown under direct sunlight to amplify the variety and intensity of flavors
• For generations, the Criollo plant produced 4 of the 5 leaves in a "Havana" cigar
  • Corojo wrapper leaves are the 5th
• Produces 6 to 7 pairs of leaves
• Ligero: leaves at the top of the plant are the strongest and fuller flavored, due to direct sunlight (Heavier Sun = Heavier Tobacco)
• Leaves toward the bottom of the plant are more subtle in flavor and strength
  • Seco: used as filler
  • Capote: used for binder
  • Volado: used as filler
• Outside of Cuba [and the Criollo Varietal], tobacco plant leaves are generally classified, from top to bottom, as:
  • CORONA - LIGERO - VISO - SECO - VOLADO

---

COROJO

• Developed in 1930s by Diego Rodriguez
• Derived from the Criollo seed through selective breeding
• Named after its birthplace, the farm Santa Ines del Corojo in the Vuelta Abajo region
• Premiere wrapper for Cuban Cigars until 1990s
• Primarily grown under shade for wrappers
• Weakness: still susceptible to Blue-Mold, Black Shank, and other Tobacco ravaging diseases
• Produces 8 to 9 pairs of leaves
• Praised for its dark brown (colorado) color, uniformity, thin veins

---

GENERAL

In General, outside of Cuba, these plant classifications apply.















Back Next

 

[webmost]

Where's the olor come from?

 

[MarcL]

Where's the olor come from?

Olor Dominicano is indigenous to the Dominican Republic. The word "Olor" in Spanish means "aroma." This plant produces thinner and less substantive leaves than Piloto and is primarily used for filler. It is highly prized for its aromatic and blending qualities. Specific varietals of Olor Dominicano include Amarillo Parado and David Mendez.

 

[deluxestogie]

While the graphics and definitive assertions may appear convincing, (and the history of Corojo seems to be correct), I will point out that tobacco leaves do not grow in pairs. So, the graphics are fiction. Tobacco exhibits a pentagonal symmetry, so the leaves emerge individually from the stalk (not in opposite pairs), in a pentagonal distribution up the stalk.

Also, Olor is used for wrappers and binders, in addition to filler.

Who are these "University" authors, and where do they get their "expertise?"

Bob

 

[MarcL]

While the graphics and definitive assertions may appear convincing, (and the history of Corojo seems to be correct), I will point out that tobacco leaves do not grow in pairs. So, the graphics are fiction. Tobacco exhibits a pentagonal symmetry, so the leaves emerge individually from the stalk (not in opposite pairs), in a pentagonal distribution up the stalk.

Also, Olor is used for wrappers and binders, in addition to filler.

Who are these "University" authors, and where do they get their "expertise?"

Bob

http://www.tobacconistuniversity.org/curriculum_tobacco_college_seeds.php

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Yes, the leaves exhibit a spiral up the stalk. Have you ever noticed that some have a clock-wise spiral and others have a counter-clockwise spiral. This phenomenon seems to depend on the variety (cultivar).

 

[deluxestogie]

http://www.tobacconistuniversity.org/curriculum_tobacco_college_seeds.php

I suppose that quality of information is adequate for tobacconists, since their customers know next to zero. For agronomists (us folks growing the stuff), it's not quite accurate.

Bob

 

[webmost]

Olor Dominicano is indigenous to the Dominican Republic. The word "Olor" in Spanish means "aroma." This plant produces thinner and less substantive leaves than Piloto and is primarily used for filler. It is highly prized for its aromatic and blending qualities. Specific varietals of Olor Dominicano include Amarillo Parado and David Mendez.

Got all that part. I spose what I ought to have asked is, on one of these diagrams, where on the plant is the olor leaf picked?

 

[deluxestogie]

Olor is the entire plant variety, so it is picked from the entire Olor plant. Olor, in Spanish, means odor, scent or smell. The Spanish word for aroma is "aroma".

Incidentally, the Amarillo Parado that I grew did not resemble any of the 4 Olor varieties that I've grown in smoking characteristics--seemed more like a cigarette variety. Physically, there was a vague resemblance, though the Amarillo Parado held its leaves fairly upright and straight throughout growth, whereas Olor leaves are arched, and tend to droop. (Amarillo parado means "standing yellow".) So I'm not sure what that statement is about.

2014 season.

2013 season.

2014 season.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Two major groups of tobacco are recognized in the Dominican Republic, one known
as "Olor" and the other as "Criollo." The first mentioned includes the choicest to-
bacco varieties, and the leaf is reserved almost entirely for domestic utilization in
the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes. The "Criollo" type, the native or indig-
enous tobacco, includes the less desirable sorts. It is grown for export and is made
into cheap cigarettes and plug tobacco for pipe smoking. This grade of tobacco is
mostly exported to European countries, particularly Spain, France , Germany, and others.

Some people believe that these two major groups of tobacco must be grown on
particular soil types for the best results. The Olor, especially, is said to produce
best leaf on well-drained sandy loams with porous, gravelly subsoils. The Criollo
is considered to be less fastidious and therefore adapted to loamy clays as well.
Some tobacco specialists in the Dominican Republic are somewhat skeptical of the
claims of a varietal preference for a particular soil. It is probably quite true,
however, that the thinnest wrappers and best cigar leaf are produced on the lighter,
well-enriched soils, as in the United States. However, since the Criollo tobacco is
not intended for high-quality products, the grower would not be likely torelateit to
any particular soil; his goal would be maximum yield alone, since it means cash to him.

There are several well-known varieties in the Olor group, designated as Quin
Diaz, Sumatra, and Cubanito. This group is said to be characterized by small veins,
with the lateral veins perpendicular to the midrib, and also by thinness of leaf and
high aroma. Quin Diaz has large, pointed leaves, longer than broad. the Su-
matra and Cubanito, which are similar to it, have relatively smaller, rounder leaves.

The three chief varieties of Criollo tobacco are Amarillo parado, Amarillo plan-
chado, and Jagua. These are characterized by leaves of thicker, coarser character,
with more prominent lateral veins that meet the midrib at sharp angles, in comparison
with the Olor types. Amarillo parado is highly appreciated, because it is resistant
to disease and returns high yields. Amarillo planchado is also much appreciated, for
under the best conditions it produces a good grade of cigar wrapper used in the man-
ufacture of domestic cigars. Jagua is a very coarse tobacco, best adapted for the
production of the native andullo product.

https://archive.org/stream/tobaccoindominic30alla/tobaccoindominic30alla_djvu.txt

So, according to the USDA in 1948, Amarillo Parado is not a type of Olor.

Bob